Who: Malaysian actor Zhang Zetong was working at online marketplace platform Carousell before he won Mediacorp’s talent competition Star Search in 2019, kicking off his career in show business. Since then, the 30-year-old has starred in Mandarin drama series A Jungle Survivor (2020), for which he won the Best Newcomer Award at the 2021 Star Awards. He is starring in English Mediacorp period drama Last Madame: Sisters Of The Night (2023), the prequel to the award-winning series Last Madame (2019), which takes place in a brothel. He plays the son of a secret society boss who is equal parts gentleman and playboy. Last Madame: Sisters Of The Night is available on mewatch and Mediacorp’s YouTube Drama Channel.

“As an actor, I don’t typically have weekends off. But on days off, I like to sleep in. I have to wake up as early as 5 or 6am on a typical weekday, so I sleep in until 10 or 11 in the morning when I am not working.

First order of the day is a good breakfast at home or at a cafe nearby. My perfect breakfast is peanut butter toast and kopi o kosong – no sugar because I have to maintain my body – and two sets of hard-boiled eggs for extra protein at Ya Kun Kaya Toast.

Once I have something in my tummy, I head to the gym. I clock in a gym session on days off because on work days, our schedules are so random, there is no guarantee there will be time to head to the gym. I split my routine into push and pull workouts.

If I watch the South Korean reality show Physical: 100 (2023) the night before, I actually push myself harder in the gym because those men on the show make me want to achieve more.

I really respect Winter Olympics skeleton racing gold medallist Yun Sung-bin, who is on the show. Not only is his physique great, but he also has this grit and determination that is really admirable. He is my ‘gym-spiration’.

Afterwards, I catch up on my own shows to judge my performance or watch other television shows.

I am generally quite stressed from work, so I like to decompress with more light-hearted fare like South Korean variety show Running Man (2010 to present).

If I am in the mood for something more serious, I watch Mandarin shows from Taiwan, China or Singapore, like Taiwanese crime series Copycat Killer (2023) on Netflix.

But I lack the stamina to complete a whole series, so I am guilty of giving up after one or two episodes.

I have dinner with my sisters, whom I live with. My elder sister, 32, typically makes Korean dishes, but I really love our hotpot nights.

I have started learning to cook simple Chinese dishes for my family, like la rou (cured pork belly) and mushrooms.

I picked up road cycling a year ago, so I might head out after dinner on my new road bike to end the day.

On my other days off, I visit my parents in Johor Bahru once a month. My priority is spending quality time together, so I don’t go exploring the Malaysian city’s cafes. But I have been meaning to visit Mediacorp host Ke Le’s cafe Loft Cafe by V.

Otherwise, I meet my friends from university to play board games. We meet once every few months to play games of all genres, from short party games like Code Names to longer, deceptive ones like Not Alone to resource-building games like Bejeweled.”